Generally, optical filters and coatings are passive components whose basic function is to define or improve the performance of optical systems. There are many types of optical filters and they are used for a broad range of different applications. One common type of optical filter is a sunglass lens. Polarized sunglass lenses filter out light with a certain direction of polarization in addition to reducing the sun's intensity. Applications of optical filters and coatings can be diverse as in anti-glare computer screens, colored glass, sighting devices, and electrical spark imagers—to name just a few.
Some optical filters are specialized for different wavelength ranges of light. For example, many applications and instruments require optical filters that can be used to tune the optical behavior of light in the ultraviolet, deep ultraviolet or far ultraviolet wavelength range (i.e., at frequencies of radiant energy that are generally above the frequencies of visible light). Some example applications for such filters include deep-UV focal-plane arrays for military applications, electrical spark imaging, water purification, blood chemistry analysis, and the chemical evaluation of foods, pollutants, gases, and many other applications.
Much work has been done in the past to develop useful optical filters and coatings for ultraviolet and shorter wavelengths. As the wavelength of light becomes shorter in the ultraviolet range, however, certain prior art optical filter and/or coating construction suffers from disadvantages such as for example:                poor optical performance,        limited physical longevity,        high autofluorescence,        poor imaging quality of transmitted radiation, and/or        transmitted wavelength instability.        
The following discussion of the prior art is not intended to be limiting or to constitute any disclaimer. The PTO is encouraged to review the underlying references independently for possible relevance.
As one example, dielectric film technologies for optical coatings employed for ultraviolet applications generally include deposition of soft, marginally adherent multilayer thin films onto various glasses. Such films are generally soft and lack physical durability. Also, most such films are water-soluble. These films may consist, for example, of materials such as lead fluoride, cryolite (AlF6 Na3), and zinc sulfide. Some such coatings also may contain refractory metal oxides that are in general more durable, but standard oxide coatings are generally optically unstable when exposed to a varying environment (e.g., temperature and humidity).
One way to protect these sensitive multilayer optical coatings is to embed them into a transparent epoxy by lamination onto other glass substrates. However, optical filters made by a soft or hard film deposition may include multiple coating layers and laminations, requiring cumbersome and relatively costly manufacturing processes. Moreover, the epoxy laminate can sometimes effectively limit the useful temperature range of the product, typically to less than about 100° C. Epoxies can also discolor and degrade over a short time period when exposed to ultraviolet radiation, rapidly degrading the filters' optical performance. Additionally, epoxy laminates may tend to autofluoresce upon exposure to UV radiation. These effects can limit the use of such laminates in sensitive, critical instrumentation and other sensitive applications requiring long-term and/or high stability and high temperature range.
Soft film filters can be vulnerable to abrasion and can be sensitive to temperature and humidity and therefore may have relatively limited operating lifetimes. Additionally, any laminates will generally degrade the ability to image through a filter of this type, significantly limiting their application.
Another type of ultraviolet optical filter employs thin films that are designated as “MDM” (Metal-Dielectric-Metal). MDM filters generally comprise essentially a single substrate of fused silica or quartz, upon which a multilayer coating consisting of two materials (e.g., a dielectric such as cryolite and a metal such as aluminum) is deposited. These MDM filters can work well in certain applications. However, MDM films are often soft and easily damaged by moisture and oxygen. To protect MDM filters from such damaging effects, it is often necessary to construct the final filter using a second, fused silica substrate mechanically fixed within a ring assembly with a vacuum or an atmosphere of a dry, inert gas separating the two substrates. This construction is expensive and heavy.
In typical applications, the MDM ultraviolet optical filter is generally operated as a bandpass filter, which will pass a short range of wavelengths and eliminate out-of-band wavelengths by reflection. For example, this type of filter is commonly employed for Deep UV applications (wavelengths shorter than 300 nm). The property of “induced transmission” generally governs the optical behavior of the coating. In at least some such filters, the thin metal film is induced to transmit energy at a particular design wavelength. MDM filters offer the advantage over soft-coating type filters of eliminating laminating epoxies, thus eliminating performance degradation due to solarization (UV discoloration). However, the optical performance of MDM filters is often rather limited. Typically, the peak transmission rate of 270 nm to 300 nm bandpass filters is at most about 10–25%. The maximum usable temperature of this filter type can also be relatively low, typically less than 150° C.
Yet another type of ultraviolet optical filter employs uniform arrays of metallic waveguides, such as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,251 issued to A. Rosenberg et al. Jan. 11, 2000. At 100 μm and longer wavelengths, filters based on arrays of metallic waveguides have been well known in the art for a considerable time ([Fritz Keilmann, Int. J. of Infrared and Millimeter Waves 2, p. 259. (1981)], [T. Timusk and P. L. Richards, Appl. Optics 20, p.1355 (1981)], [P. G. Huggard, M. Meyringer, A. Schilz, K. Goller, and W. Prettl, “Far-Infrared Band pass-Filters from Perforated Metal Screens”, Appl. Optics 33, p. 39 (1994)]). Such filters generally demonstrated advantageous properties. For example, they are relatively rugged (they generally consisted of a single piece of perforated metal); relatively lightweight, compact, and relatively insensitive to environmental factors such as heat and humidity. In addition to ruggedness, far-infrared filters based on arrays of metal waveguides have shown additional advantages over other types of filters. For example, the cutoff wavelength is generally insensitive to the propagation direction of the incident radiation, while the transmission efficiency generally decreases only gradually as the propagation direction deviates from the normal to the plane of the leaky waveguide array.
Unfortunately, techniques used for the manufacture of such metallic waveguide-based IR optical filters generally cannot be extended easily into the near-infrared, visible, and UV spectral regions. In order to have cutoff wavelengths in these spectral regions, holes with diameters between 10 and 0.1 μm and an aspect ratio (t/d)>>1 (where t is the thickness of the perforated material and d is the diameter of the holes) are generally required. This can be difficult to accomplish as a practical matter in machined metal. One known technique to make such optical filters is based on the same general principles adopted for UV, visible and near-infrared wavelength ranges. It is possible to use nanochannel glass and to follow up initial fabrication processes by covering channel walls and both surfaces of the filter with highly reflective material such as metal, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,014,251 issued to A. Rosenberg et al. Jan. 11, 2000. However, this fabrication process may result in a general lack of control of the shape of the transmission spectrum. In particular, the transition from full transmission to full blocking of such filters in the UV range can take up to more than a hundred nm in wavelength, which is not acceptable for many practical applications. A sharper transmission edge can be achieved by increasing of the aspect ratio, but this may result in strong degradation of overall transmission efficiency. Another drawback of the glass microchannel approach includes the lack of control over the uniformity of channel sizes, leading to even wider transmission edges (resulting in degradation of the transmitted image quality) and channel wall smoothness (resulting in even stronger losses within the pass-band).
Another type of ultraviolet optical filter was recently disclosed in [Lehmann et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. V 78, N.5, January 2001]. This filter configuration is based on the spectral filtering of light in an array of leaky waveguides in the form of pores in Macroporous Silicon (“MPSi”). An advantage of this approach is generally better manufacturability and better control over uniformity of the hollow channels comprising the array and over the channel wall smoothness. One such illustrative method of optical filter manufacturing consists of forming a freestanding macropore array from N-doped Si wafer in fluoride-containing electrolyte under certain backside illumination conditions. Precise control over the pore distribution across the surface of the wafer may be possible if preliminary patterning of the silicon wafer surface with regularly distributed depressions (so-called “etch pits”) is performed. Pore diameters can be kept in a more narrow size range than when using the microchannel glass technology. The pore walls are also considerably smoother. Due to absence of any fluorescence from silicon, such filters should have no autofluorescence at all. Due to the excellent mechanical properties of silicon, such filters are robust under very high temperatures (up to 1100° C.).
Information about manufacturing such filters can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,021 issued to V. Lehmann et al. Nov. 16, 1993 (which claims priority to Fed. Rep. Of Germany Patent # 4202454, issued Jan. 29, 1992), in which a method of forming of free-standing macropore arrays from an n-doped Si wafer is disclosed. Lehmann also describes the use of such arrays as optical filters. However, the method of removing the macroporous layer from the Si wafer, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,021, will result in the second surface of the macroporous layer being inherently rough, causing high losses due to scattering. In these disclosures, the MPSi layer is used without any further modifications. While such filters exhibit some short-pass filtering, the transmission spectral shape through them will be unusable for commercial applications due to the wide blocking edge.
Macroporous silicon layers with modulated pore diameters throughout the pore depth is disclosed in, for example, [U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,208 issued to U. Gruning and V. Lehmann et al. Nov. 16, 1999] or [J. Schilling et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. V 78, N.9, February 2001]. However, in such disclosures, the MPSi layer is not freestanding, i.e. a substantial portion of the silicon wafer is left under the porous layer, thus making such a structure completely opaque and non-functional in the UV and visible spectral ranges.
By way of example, FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an exemplary prior art freestanding MPSi uniform pore array section of a uniform cubic lattice such as disclosed in Lehmann (U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,021 issued to V. Lehmann, et al Nov. 16, 1993; and Lehmann et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. V 78, N.5, January 2001). The exemplary FIG. 1 prior art spectral filter consists of air- or vacuum-filled macropores 1.2 disposed into the silicon wafer host 1.1. The macropores 1.2 are disposed such that an ordered uniform macropore array is formed, where the ordering is a key attribute. The pore ends are open at both first and second surfaces of the silicon wafer 1.1. Since silicon is opaque in the deep UV, UV, visible and part of the near IR wavelength ranges, light can pass through the structure shown in FIG. 1 only through the pores. As shown in FIG. 2, the silicon absorption coefficient k is very high at wavelengths below ˜400 nm and moderately high at wavelengths below ˜900 nm, which blocks all radiation coming through the silicon having a thickness of 50 micrometers or more.
Since pore diameters of 100 nm–to 5000 nm are comparable with the wavelength of light (200 nm–1000 nm) and due to the high aspect ratios possible in MPSi structures ((t/d)>30), the transmission through such a macroporous structure at wavelengths below about 700 nm takes place through leaky waveguide modes. In such leaky waveguide modes, the cores of the leaky waveguides are air or vacuum-filled, while the reflective walls of the leaky waveguides the pore walls. This can be seen in FIG. 2 by the near-metallic behavior of the refractive index n and absorption coefficient k of silicon at wavelengths below ˜370 nm. Hence, MPSi material can be considered as an ordered array of leaky waveguides. By means of the high absorption of the walls, each leaky waveguide pore can be considered to be independent of the others in the visible, UV and deep UV spectral ranges if they are separated by silicon walls with thicknesses >20–100 nm.
In the near IR and IR wavelength ranges, the nature of the transmission through the filter of FIG. 1 changes. This happens because silicon becomes less opaque at 700–900 nm and becomes transparent at wavelengths starting approximately from 1100 nm. Light at these wavelengths can pass through the MPSi structure of FIG. 1 not only through the pores, but also through the silicon host. Due to the porous nature of the silicon host, the transmission occurs through waveguide modes confined in the silicon host. As a high refractive index material, silicon can support waveguide modes if surrounded by a lower refractive index material (air or vacuum). Since close packing of the pores is essential for efficient transmission through the filter of FIG. 1, such a structure can be considered to some approximation in the near IR as an array of Si waveguides in an air host. When the wavelength of light becomes much larger than the pore array pitch, the light starts interacting with the MPSi layer as if it were a single layer of uniform material having its dielectric constants averaged through the pores and the host. As an illustration, for a square array of pores with 4 micrometer pitch, transmission takes place starting approximately at a wavelength of 20 micrometers.
In the leaky waveguide regime applicable to the UV through extreme UV spectral region, the optical loss coefficient, α, having dimensions cm−1, will be used to characterize the optical transmission. The amount of light still remaining in the pore leaky waveguide (or Si host waveguide) after it travels a length l is proportional to exp(−α(λ)l), and the light remaining in the MPSi array at the distance l from the first MPSi layer interface is equal to I0P(λ)exp(−α(λ)l), where I0 is the initial intensity of the light entering the pore and P(λ) is the coupling efficiency at the first MPSi interface. The optical loss coefficient is, in turn, a function of pore size, geometry, distribution, and wavelength. It is also depends on the smoothness of the pore walls. The roughness of the walls introduces another source of absorption of light, i.e., scattering, which is proportional to the roughness to wavelength ratio.
An illustrative, numerically calculated spectral dependence of loss coefficients for the prior art MPSi filter of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 3a. In this non-limiting illustrative example, the pore array is made up of 1×1-micrometer vacuum-filled pores. It follows from this illustrative plot that for the chosen pore array dimensions, transmission through pore leaky waveguides is dominant up to about 700 nm and the transmission through the silicon host waveguides is dominant starting from about 800 nm. At 700–800 nm, both transmission mechanisms compete with each other. The increase of the losses through leaky waveguides with increasing wavelength is due to both the reduction of the reflection coefficient of silicon and to the redistribution of the leaky waveguide mode over the pore cross-sections. The modal field penetration into the silicon host material, as well as the optical losses, increase with the wavelength.
Referring now to FIGS. 3b and 3c, illustrative plots of the numerically calculated dependences on pore size of the effective refractive indices and loss coefficients are shown. Transverse electric (TE-polarized) leaky waveguide modes are shown for the structure of FIG. 1. The wavelength for this particular example is 250 nm. Losses of each of the modes decrease with the increase of the pore size due to the mode intensity redistribution inside the pore described above. It follows from FIGS. 3b and 3c that pores become multimode leaky waveguides starting approximately with a pore diameter of 220 nm. For example, for a pore with a 1 micrometer cross-section, the number of TE-polarized modes is expected to be 8. This means that the transmission through the MPSi filter takes place not through one leaky waveguide mode, but rather through a number of leaky waveguide modes. The amount of light remaining at the distance l into the pore from the first MPSi filter surface can be estimated as I0ΣPi,j(λ)exp(−αi,j(λ)l) where the i,j are the mode order indices. These are introduced as follows: i=j=0 corresponds to the fundamental mode and so on; Pi,j(λ) is the coupling efficiency into i,j-th mode and αi,j(λ) is the loss coefficient of i,j-th mode. The summation should be done through all the modes supported by the given pore structure.
It follows from FIG. 3c that losses increase very quickly with the increase of mode order (note that the losses in FIG. 3c are presented on a logarithmic scale). Moreover, the coupling coefficient Pi,j(λ) is vanishingly small for square pores and near-normal incidence conditions for either i or j odd. This means that in general only the first one or two modes are responsible for the transmission through an MPSi structure of reasonable thickness (>20 micrometers) for pore diameters up to 1.5 microns. As a practical matter, all light coupled into higher order modes will be absorbed while traveling through a porous leaky waveguide. Coupling efficiency, in turn, is the highest for the fundamental mode and quickly decreases with the increasing mode order.
There are other parameters affecting prior art MPSi filter performance. These include the coupling efficiency of incident light into leaky waveguide modes at the first MPSi wafer interface and the out coupling from the leaky waveguide modes to transmitted light at the second MPSi wafer interface. If a plane-parallel beam of light is incident on the MPSi interface, the coupling efficiency to the leaky waveguide fundamental mode can be roughly estimated as:
            P      ⁡              (        λ        )              ≈          S              S        uc              ,where S is the area of pores 1.2 in FIG. 1, while Suc is the area of a MPSi array unit cell (which can be introduced for ordered MPSi arrays only). In other words, to a good approximation, P(λ)˜p in the UV spectral range, where p is the porosity of an MPSi filter near the first MPSi wafer interface.
At the second interface of the exemplary MPSi filter, the light from waveguide ends (leaky or not, as applicable) is emitted with a divergence governed by the numerical aperture, NA, and wavelength. In the far field, the destructive and constructive interference of all light sources in the form of leaky waveguide or waveguide ends takes place. In the case of an ordered MPSi array, this leads to a number of diffraction orders, which are defined by the pore array geometry (i.e. by the relationship between pore size, pore-to-pore distance) and the wavelength of the light. For most applications of optical filters, only light outcoupled into the 0th-diffraction order is of interest. However, some applications are not sensitive to the outcoupling of light to higher diffraction orders, for instance, when the filter is directly mounted on the top of a photodetector or a detector array. In other cases, the main source of outcoupling losses is the redistribution of light into higher diffraction orders. Such losses are sensitive on both wavelength and pore array geometry. They are more pronounced at short wavelengths due to the higher number of diffraction orders.
It should be noted that outcoupling losses can be completely suppressed for any given wavelength if the MPSi array period is less than or equal to that wavelength. For instance, for a 280 nm wavelength in the “solar-blind” region of spectrum that is important for many applications, this will generally require a pore array period on the order of 280 nm or less and pore diameters of about 100–200 nm.
The exemplary prior art spectral filter structure of FIG. 1 is disadvantageous from the viewpoint of the wide transition from the pass band of the spectral filter to the blocking band, referred to herein as “blocking edge”. For example, it is often desirable to make the blocking edge as narrow as it possible, while keeping the transmission within the pass band as high as possible. Modifications of pore diameter d and MPSi thickness t of the prior art structure of FIG. 1 cannot solve this problem, since increasing t while keeping d constant or decreasing d while keeping t constant leads to some narrowing of the transmission edge, but this is accomplished at the expense of strong degradation of filter transmission efficiency and an unavoidable shift of the blocking edge to shorter wavelengths, which is clearly unacceptable.
There are also several disclosures related to the method of manufacturing of macroporous structures with controlled positions of the pores. An early disclosure is U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,484 issued to H. Foell and V. Lehmann issued Oct. 17, 1989 (which claims priority to Fed. Rep. Of Germany Patent # 3717851 dated May 27, 1987). This patent describes a method of generating MPSi arrays from n-doped (100)-oriented silicon wafers in HF-based aqueous electrolytes (i.e. based on HF diluted with water) under the presence of backside illumination. It also describes a method of controlling the position of macropores through formation of etch-pits. Etch pits are typically, but not exclusively, pyramid-shaped openings formed on the silicon or other semiconductor surface that can be formed through mask openings upon exposure to anisotropic chemical etchants. In addition, the use of wetting agents (such as formaldehyde) and controlling the pore profile through chronologically-varying applied electrical potential also was disclosed. However, the pores in these MPSi arrays were not open from both ends.
A freestanding macropore structure was disclosed U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,021 issued to V. Lehmann and H. Reisinger. The method of forming MPSi layer from an n-doped, (100) oriented silicon wafer in an HF-based aqueous electrolyte under the presence of back-side illumination was disclosed. In addition, the use of an oxidation agent and several methods of stripping the MPSi layer from the unetched part of the silicon wafer was described. Although stripped MPSi layers according to the disclosed method can be used as functional short-pass filters (with the drawbacks, disclosed previously), the optical quality of the second surface of the MPSi layer is quite poor (due to inherent roughness) and thus this prior art method is disadvantageous in some aspects.
A method of MPSi layer formation in non-aqueous electrolytes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,627 issued Sep. 20, 1994 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,766 issued Jul. 11, 1995, both to E. K. Propst and P. A. Kohl. Organic solvent-based electrolytes are used for forming porous layers in n-doped silicon under the presence of the front-side illumination. Example solvent based electrolytes are acetonitrile (MeCN), diemethyl formamide (DMF), propylene carbonate (C3O3H6) or methylene chloride (CH2Cl2)) containing organic supporting electrolytes, such as tetrabutilammonium perchlorate (C16H36NClO4) and tetramethylammonium perchlorate (C4H12NClO4) and anhydrous sources of fluoride, for example, HF, fluoroborate (BF4−), tetrabutylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBAFB), aluminum hexafluorate (AlF63−) and hydrogen difluoride (HF2−). However, the MPSi layer quality obtained by using this method is of generally poor optical quality with strong pore wall erosion and branching.
A method of manufacturing ordered free-standing MPSi arrays with pore walls coated by a semiconducting layer with follow-on oxidizing or nitriding through a CVD process was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,772 issued Aug. 13, 1996 to R. J. Soave et. al in relation to production of microchannel plate electron multipliers. N-doped silicon wafers, photoelectrochemically etched in HF-based aqueous electrolyte, were disclosed. Constraint of the substrate during the oxidation process has been also taught.
Another method of manufacturing MPSi-based microchannel plate electron multipliers is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,997,713 issued Dec. 7, 1999 to C. P. Beetz et al. This patent describes an ordered, freestanding MPSi array through electrochemical etching of a p-doped silicon wafer. Both aqueous and non-aqueous (acetonitrile, tetrabuthylsulfoxide, propylene carbonate or metholene chloride-based) electrolytes based on both HF and fluoride salts were disclosed for MPSi layer manufacturing. Covering pore walls of freestanding MPSi array with a dynode and insulating materials through CVD, sol-gel coating, electrolytic deposition, electrodeposition and electroless plating was disclosed. Use of mechanical grinding, polishing, plasma etching or chemical back-thinning to remove the remaining part of the silicon wafer in line with the pores were disclosed. The use of surfactant to improve pore quality was also taught.
Certain of these various structures described above are not intended to be functional as spectral filters. Any spectral filtering properties these structures exhibit over some wavelengths would appear to be by accident rather than by design
The use of a conductivity-promoting agent in organic-based electrolytes (DMF) during the photoelectrochemical etching of n-doped silicon was disclosed in S. Izuo et al., Sensors and Actuators A 97–98 (2002), pp. 720–724. The use of isopropanol ((CH3)2CHOH) as a basis for an organic electrolyte for electrochemical etching of p-doped silicon was disclosed in, for example, A. Vyatkin et al., J. of the Electrochem. Soc., 149 (1), 2002, pp. G70–G76. The use of ethanol (C2H5OH) to reduce hydrogen bubble formation during electrochemical etching of silicon as an addition to aqueous HF-based electrolytes was disclosed in, for example, K. Barla et al., J. Cryst. Growth, 68, p. 721 (1984). Completely filling the pores with silicon dioxide or doped silicon dioxide through CVD, particularly to create optical waveguides (similar to optical fibers in structure) for integrated circuit interconnects was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,526,191 B1 issued Feb. 25, 2003 to Geusic et al. A detailed review of the various aspects of MPSi formation can be found in H. Foell et. al, Mat. Sci. Eng. R 39 (2002), pp. 93–141.
In addition to silicon, macropores have been obtained in other types of semiconductor and ceramic materials. Macropores obtained in n-type GaAs by electrochemical etching in acidic electrolytes (aqueous HCl-based) were reported by, for example, D. J. Lockwood et al., Physica E, 4, p. 102 (1999) and S. Langa et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 78(8), pp.1074–1076, (2001). Macropores obtained in n-type GaP by electrochemical etching were reported by B. H. Erne et al., Adv. Mater., 7, p. 739 (1995). Macropore formation during electrochemical etching (in aqueous and organic solutions of HCl and mixtures of HCl and H2SO4) of n-type InP was reported by P. A. Kohl et al., J. Electrochem. Soc., 130, p. 228 (1983) and more recently by Schmuki P et al., Physica Status Solidi A, 182 (1), pp. 51–61, (2000); S. Langa et al., J. Electrochem. Soc. Lett., 3 (11), p. 514, (2000). Macroporous GaN formation during electrochemical etching was reported by J. v. d. Lagemaat, Utrecht (1998). Macropore formation during electrochemical etching of Ge was reported by S. Langa et al., Phys. Stat. Sol. (A), 195 (3), R4–R6 (2003). Reviews of macropore formation in III–V semiconductors can be found in H. Foell et al., Phys. Stat. Sol. A, 197 (1), p. 64, (2003); M. Christophersen et al., Phys. Stat. Sol. A, 197 (1), p. 197, (2003), and H. Föll et al., Adv. Materials, Review, 2003, 15, pp.183–198, (2003).
It may be that no spectral filter technology has yet been demonstrated in any porous semiconductor material other than silicon. For example, freestanding macroporous semiconductor layers, which are useful for ultraviolet filter, have not been demonstrated in materials other than silicon. Ordered pore arrays were reported for n-doped InP (S. Langa et al., Phys. Stat. Sol. A, 197 (1), p. 77, (2003)), but in that context the order which was obtained was due to self-organization rather than due to pore formation in predetermined locations. No post-growth coating of the pore walls was disclosed.
Another macropore material widely known to those skilled in the art is anodic alumina that is obtained by electrochemical etching of an aluminum layer in an acidic electrolyte (see, for example, R. C. Furneaux et al., Nature, 337, p. 147 (1989), and others). Such layers are usually made freestanding and consist of high aspect ratio cylindrical pores that can be made random, self-ordered into pore polycrystallites or ordered through preliminary preparation of the pore nucleation sites similar to the etch pits previously discussed for silicon. Despite of the fact that pore filling in anodic alumina by metals or semiconductors has been widely employed, the coating of pore walls for use as optical filters has not been attempted or taught.
In addition to electrochemical etching, other methods of producing pore-like structures are known to those skilled in the art. As an example, deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) has been used to produce relatively high aspect ratio hole structures with CVD-deposited diamond coated walls for microchannel plate electron multipliers (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,521,149 issued Feb. 18, 2003 to Mearini et al.). Such structures are also made freestanding by backside removal of the silicon through grinding, polishing or etching. Various methods of filling high vertical aspect ratio structures by various materials can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,645,684 issued Jul. 8, 1997 to C. G. Keller.
To overcome these and other problems, we provide in one non-limiting illustrative exemplary arrangement, an improved UV, deep UV or far UV (e.g., green or shorter wavelengths) filter configuration based on a substantially uniform array of leaky waveguides made of porous semiconductor (where pores are straight and non-branching). Further, the pore walls are covered by at least one layer of transparent material. Pore cross sections can be modulated at least along part of the depths while other parts are left unmodulated, or the entire depths can be modulated. Such spectral optical filters can be used for short-pass, band-pass, narrow-band pass or band blocking spectral filtering, and provide significant advantages. The advantages include, but are not limited to, omnidirectionality, i.e., absence of the spectral shape dependence of transmission (for transmission type optical filters) or reflection (for reflection type optical filters) on the angle of incidence within the acceptance angles of the filter. Other advantages are manufacturability (i.e., the ability to fabricate such filters relatively simply and inexpensively compared to the other filter configurations known by those skilled in the art), absence of autofluorescence and delamination problems.
The exemplary non-limiting configuration is based on the formation of a large number of identical, mutually de-coupled, leaky waveguides arranged with respect to each other such that the transmission through the array is possible only through at least one of the leaky waveguide modes of the assembly of leaky waveguides. The mode loss spectrum of each of said leaky waveguides is wavelength dependent and can be tuned to the desired spectral shape and position by modifying the structure of said leaky waveguides. Said modifications include coherently (periodically with a single period) modulating the cross sections of the leaky waveguides along the depths of the leaky waveguides, covering the walls of the leaky waveguide with dielectric multilayer structures or combining these two methods. The transmission spectrum of such a spectral filter is determined by the mode loss spectrum of each leaky waveguide and by the coupling/outcoupling efficiencies at the first and second surfaces of such a spectral filter. In addition, one or both broad faces of the filter made up of pore leaky waveguides can be covered by absorptive and/or reflective material such as, for example, metal, semiconductor or high-reflectance dielectric multilayer coatings. These coatings, covering the broad faces of the non-pore material between the leaky waveguide ends, provide wider blocking ranges outside the desired spectral band of the filter. In the case of metal layers, the great advantage is obtained that the blocked spectrum extends without unwanted peaks or valleys to the long wavelength side of the desired spectrum without limit. Further, stronger blocking than obtained with any other type of filter is obtained over at least part of the blocking range.
The leaky waveguide array can be formed in a semiconductor wafer in the form of channels going through the wafer (pores). Such a structure can be fabricated, for example, by forming the layer of porous semiconductor by means of electrochemical etching of a single crystal semiconductor wafer as deeply as necessary and subsequently removing the un-etched remainder. By this procedure, a free-standing porous semiconductor layer is made with the pores extending completely through the semiconductor. Pores formed by such a process will serve as leaky waveguides at short wavelengths, while the semiconductor host, absorptive at wavelengths shorter than the band edge of the particular semiconductor material, will insure the absence of coupling between the leaky waveguides. The previously mentioned modulation of the cross sections of the leaky waveguides can be achieved through modulating the pore diameters along their depths by modulating the electrochemical etching parameters during electrochemical etching process. For example, the parameters available for modulation include the current density, illumination intensity or others known to those skilled in the art. Said semiconductor material can be silicon (P-type doped or N-type doped), gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, or any other material, shown to form straight pores during electrochemical etching in a suitable electrolyte and under suitable conditions. Alternatively, said wafer can be of aluminum and a porous layer can be grown by the anodic oxidation aluminum in a suitable electrolyte under the suitable conditions. The resulting aluminum oxide porous layer can be made freestanding with the pores extending from one surface of the substrate to the opposite surface by, for example, continuing of the electrochemical etching process until the pores are etched completely through substrate, by the chemical or electrochemical etching of the unwanted substrate material from the back side after the anodic etching pore formation step, by Reactive Ion Etching, mechanical or chemical-mechanical polishing or by any other process known to those skilled in the art. The covering of the walls of the leaky waveguides can be achieved by partial thermal oxidation of a semiconductor (principally silicon), or by depositing a dielectric single layer or multilayer onto the pore walls by Chemical Vapor Deposition or by any other deposition, sputtering, evaporation or growth process known to those skilled in the art. Covering the substrate or wafer surface (or surfaces) between the pores by an absorptive or reflective structure can be accomplished by directional deposition techniques, such as physical vapor deposition, magnetron sputtering, thermal or electron beam evaporation, ion assisted ion plating or any other technique known to those skilled in the art. Further, if the filter structure is too fragile for its intended use, the porous layer can be reinforced by sealing between two plates of a material that is transparent over the transparency wavelength range of the porous filter. Such plates can be, for instance, of glass, silica, UV enhanced silica, CaF2 or any other transparent dielectric known to those skilled in the art.
Pores can be completely filled by a material transparent in the transparency wavelength range of the porous filter configuration to increase the acceptance angle of the filter. This may, however, limit the pass band of the filter to the transparency range of the pore filling material (for example to 150 nm for silicon dioxide or 200–300 nm for some polymers). Pore filling can be accomplished by chemical vapor deposition, injection molding, dye casting, capillary absorption of a liquid into the pores or by any other method known to those skilled in the art.
Said at least one optically transparent layer covering the pore (channel) walls may by designed to substantially minimize losses of the leaky waveguide modes supported by each of said pores within at least part of the designed pass-band of said spectral filter. Alternatively, said at least one optically transparent layer will substantially maximize losses of leaky waveguide modes supported by each of said pores at the predetermined wavelengths ranges within at least part of the blocking band of said spectral filter. Still, alternatively, said at least one optically transparent layer may be disposed to minimize the width of the blocking edge of spectral filter.
The pores can be disposed across the broad surfaces of the wafer or substrate with a predetermined pattern having predetermined symmetry (for example, cubic or hexagonal). Alternatively, said pores can be disposed randomly or made to have only short-range order in the planes of the broad surfaces of the wafer or substrate. The pores can as well be disposed at a predetermined pattern that does not possess any simple symmetry. Each of the types of pore patterns will produce different optical effects.
Additionally, the pores may have circular or near-square cross-sections. Alternatively, said pores can have substantially elongated cross-sections with one axis parallel to the substrate surface being substantially longer that the orthogonal axis. In the latter case, the mode losses for the wave having polarization such as the electrical vector of said electromagnetic wave is parallel to the major axis of the pore will be lower than the mode losses for the wave having a perpendicular orientation of the electric field vector (i.e., polarization), so a spectral filter of this invention in this aspect will be a polarizer. Since the transparency window of such a filter can be extended down to Far or Extreme UV, such a filter can be used as a polarizer for these wavelengths a capability not possible in the prior art.
The pores can be made to have tapered ends at the at least one (first or second) surface of said filter, or to taper uniformly or non-uniformly along their entire lengths. At the either narrow end of the taper the pore lateral cross-section is gradually increased again when approaching the near surface of the filter substrate in order to increase the coupling and/or outcoupling efficiency to improve the transmittance through the filter.
The resulting filters have the advantages of stability. They do not degrade over time and exposure to UV irradiation, and offer superior transmittance compared to prior art for use as bandpass filters. Such filters are useful for a wide variety of applications, including applications where currently available filter systems cannot provide acceptable performance. For instance, such optical filters will be significantly improved comparing to the prior art for a variety of analytical devices. In particular, in many biomedical analysis systems, for example in detecting the presence of a specific marker (e.g. enzyme) in a blood or tissue sample, the marker will be identified by fluorescence upon exposure of the sample to a detection wavelength. The emission from the sample can only be accurately detected using a filter such as disclosed herein that does not autofluoresce. In contrast, prior art filters may exhibit significant autofluorescence, such as resulting from the required epoxy lamination of such filters, and such autofluorescence can render the analysis system unreliable or even practically inoperable. Preferred exemplary non-limiting filters exhibit essentially no autofluorescence, e.g. autofluorescence at levels below that which may interfere with analytical use of the filter in biomedical or other applications.
This specification also discloses exemplary non-limiting illustrative methods for manufacturing spectral filters. According to one embodiment, spectral filters can be produced by:                taking the semiconductor wafer having first and second surfaces wherein said first surface is substantially flat,        producing a porous layer in said wafer starting from the first surface,        coating the pore walls with at least one layer of transparent material, and        subsequently removing the un-etched part of the wafer that remains under the porous layer.        
The porous layer can be formed through electrochemical etching of said semiconductor wafer in acidic electrolyte. The etching method may include connecting the substrate as an electrode, contacting the first surface of the substrate with an electrolyte, setting a current density (or voltage) that will influence etching erosion, and continuing the etching to form said pores extending to a desired depth substantially perpendicularly to said first surface. Said semiconductor wafer can be, but is not limited to, a silicon wafer. Preliminary depressions can be formed on the first surface of said wafer (etch pits) to control the locations of the pores to be formed in the electrochemical etching process. Said etch pits can be formed through applying a photoresist layer on the first surface of the semiconductor wafer, photolithographically defying the pattern of openings and chemically or reactive ion etching the etch pits through said openings. Alternatively, said etch pits can be formed by depositing (through chemical or physical vapor deposition, thermal oxidation, epitaxial growth, sol-gel coating or any other technique known to those skilled in the art) a material layer with different chemical properties than that of the substrate, applying a photoresist layer on the top of said material, photolithographically defining the pattern of openings in the photoresist layer, transferring said patterns into said layer through chemical or reactive ion etching and transforming the resultant pattern into a corresponding etch pit pattern through chemical or reactive ion etching. Said layer of material with different chemical properties than that of the substrate wafer may then be removed through chemical etching, reactive ion etching or any other method known to those skilled in the art.
More specifically, said semiconductor wafer can be an n-doped, <100> orientated silicon wafer. The electrolyte can be in this case an HF-based aqueous acidic electrolyte. Alternatively, the electrolyte can be an HF-based organic electrolyte. Alternatively, said semiconductor wafer can be a p-doped, <100> orientated silicon wafer. The electrolyte in this case may be HF-based organic electrolyte. The electrolyte may contain hydrofluoric acid in a range of 1% to 50%, but preferably 2 to 10% by volume. A second surface of the substrate wafer that lies opposite the first surface may be illuminated during electrochemical etching. The electrolyte may additionally contain an oxidation agent, a hydrogen reducing agent (e.g., selected from the group of chemicals consisting of mono functional alkyl alcohols, tri functional alkyl alcohols), a viscosity increasing agent, a conductivity-modifying agent, and/or other organic additives. Electrochemical process parameters such as current density, applied voltage, and illumination intensity can be kept constant during the pore formation process. Alternatively, said electrochemical process parameters can vary in a predetermined fashion during the pore growth process to provide the pores with needed variations in cross sections. As a further alternative, said semiconductor wafer can be of material chosen from the full possible range of alloys and compounds of zinc, cadmium, mercury, silicon, germanium, tin, lead, aluminum, gallium, indium, bismuth, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, sulfur, selenium and tellurium. The electrolyte may be an acidic electrolyte with the acid suitably chosen for pore formation in the particular semiconductor material.
Alternatively, said porous layer can be produced by Reactive Ion Etching (more specifically by deep Reactive Ion Etching). A layer of material with different chemical properties than that of the semiconductor wafer may be deposited in this case on the first surface of semiconductor wafer and the openings (at the positions where pores should be disposed) may be formed in this layer through photolithography and etching (chemical or RIE) steps. The pores in the semiconductor wafer then may be formed through the mask formed in the chemically different masking layer during reactive ion etching process.
Said coating of the pore walls with at least one layer of transparent material can be done through Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), thermal oxidation, liquid immersion or any other method known to those skilled in the art. Removing of the un-etched part of the wafer can be performed through grinding, mechanical polishing, chemical-mechanical polishing, chemical etching, reactive ion etching or any other method known to those skilled in the art.
According to another non-limiting illustrative arrangement, the completed porous structure is sealed between two transparent plates. Further according to another aspect of the same arrangement, at least one of the first or second surfaces of the porous layer is coated by at least one layer of absorptive or reflective material.
According to a further illustrative non-limiting method of manufacturing a spectral filter, the filter can be produced by:                starting with a semiconductor wafer having first and second surfaces, wherein said first surface is substantially flat,        producing a porous layer in said wafer starting from the first surface,        removing the un-etched part of said wafer at the ends of the pores and        coating the pore walls with at least one layer of transparent material.        
The porous layer can be formed through electrochemical etching of said semiconductor wafer in acidic electrolyte. The etching step may include connecting the substrate as an electrode, contacting the first surface of the substrate with an electrolyte, setting a current density (or voltage) which will influence the etching erosion, and continuing the etching to form said pores extending to a desired depth substantially perpendicularly to said first surface. Said semiconductor wafer can be, but is not limited to, a silicon wafer. Preliminary depressions can be formed on the first surface of said wafer (etch pits) to control the locations of the pores to be formed in the electrochemical etching process. Said etch pits can be formed through applying a photoresist layer on the first surface of the semiconductor wafer, photolithographically defining a pattern of openings and chemically or reactive ion etching etch pits through said openings. Alternatively, said etch pits can be formed through depositing, by chemical or physical vapor deposition, thermal oxidation, epitaxial growth, sol-gel coating or any other technique known to those skilled in the art, a material layer with different chemical properties than that of the substrate, applying a photoresist layer on the top of said chemically different material, photolithographically defining a pattern of openings in the photoresist layer, transferring this patterns into said layer through chemical or reactive ion etching and subsequently transforming the resultant pattern into etch pits by chemical or reactive ion etching. Said layer of material with different chemical properties than that of the substrate wafer may then be removed through chemical etching, reactive ion etching or any other method known to those skilled in the art, or may remain on the first surface to perform a function in the spectral filter.
More specifically, said semiconductor wafer can be an n-doped, <100> oriented silicon wafer. The electrolyte can be in this case HF-based aqueous acidic electrolyte. Alternatively, the electrolyte can be HF-based organic electrolyte. Alternatively, said semiconductor wafer can be a p-doped <100> oriented silicon wafer. The electrolyte in this case may be HF-based organic electrolyte. The electrolyte may contain hydrofluoric acid in a range of 1% to 50%. A second surface of the substrate wafer that lies opposite the first surface may be illuminated during electrochemical etching. The electrolyte may additionally contain an oxidation agent, a hydrogen reducing agent (e.g., selected from the group of chemicals consisting of mono functional alkyl alcohols, tri functional alkyl alcohols, tri functional alkyl alcohols), a viscosity increasing agent, a conductivity modifying agent, and/or other organic additives. Electrochemical process parameters such as current density, applied voltage, and illumination intensity (if used) can be kept constant during the pore formation process. Alternatively, said electrochemical process parameters can vary at a predetermined fashion during pore growth process to provide the pores with needed variations in cross sections. Said semiconductor wafer can alternatively be of material chosen from the full possible range of alloys and compounds of zinc, cadmium, mercury, silicon, germanium, tin, lead, aluminum, gallium, indium, bismuth, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, sulfur, selenium and tellurium. The electrolyte may be an acidic electrolyte with the acid suitable for pore formation in the particular semiconductor material.
Alternatively, said porous layer can be produced by Reactive Ion Etching (more specifically be deep Reactive Ion Etching). The layer of masking material with different chemical properties than that of the semiconductor wafer may be deposited in this case on the first surface of semiconductor wafer and the openings (at the positions where pores should be disposed) should be formed in this layer through photolithography and etching (chemical or RIE) steps. The pores in semiconductor wafer then will be formed through the masking layer during reactive ion etching process.
Removal of the unetched part of the wafer can be performed through grinding, polishing, chemo-mechanical polishing, chemical etching, reactive ion etching or any other method known to those skilled in the art.
Coating the pore walls with at least one layer of transparent material can be accomplished through Chemical Vapor Deposition, thermal oxidation, liquid immersion or any other method known to those skilled in the art.
According to another non-limiting exemplary illustrative arrangement, the porous structure so obtained is sealed between two transparent plates. At least one surface of the porous layer can be coated by at least one layer of optically absorptive or reflective material.
A further exemplary illustrative non-limiting method of manufacturing a spectral filter can be accomplished by:                making an aluminum layer having first and second surfaces, wherein said first surface is substantially flat, producing pores going through said aluminum layer,        making the resultant porous aluminum layer freestanding, and        coating the pore walls with at least one layer of transparent material.The porous structure so obtained may be sealed between two transparent plates. At least one surface of the porous layer can be coated by at least one layer of optically absorptive or reflective material.        